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Lafayette Centaurus students cheer alum Jack Fischer as he boards International Space Station

By Amy Bounds

Staff Writer

Posted:
04/20/2017 06:04:11 PM MDT

Updated:
04/20/2017 09:20:35 PM MDT

Centaurus High students and community members cheered as the hatches opened at 9:25 a.m. Thursday and Jack Fischer pushed himself into the International Space Station, orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth.

The school hosted an assembly so students and Fischer's family and friends could watch his arrival via a live feed from NASA TV.

Narrating at Centaurus was Kjell Lindgren, a veteran of one ISS mission, a friend of Fischer's and member of the same astronaut class.

His travel partner, cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, made his fourth voyage.

The two launched about 1:15 a.m. Thursday aboard a Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, traveling on a fast-track, six-hour course to the space station. The launch and docking at the space-facing Poisk module went off smoothly.

Fischer has said he will run the Centaurus experiment while in space if possible. The experiment is designed to study the effects of simulated gravity on bacterial lag phase in a micro-gravitational environment.

The first version was destroyed after the SpaceX CRS-7 unmanned supply mission failed with the rocket's explosion about 2 ½ minutes after its June 28, 2015, launch.

So students rebuilt it, watching with relief during class earlier this week as it was successfully launched.

"It was really stressful to watch because last time it blew up," said senior Mary Hanson.

Despite the initial setback, she said she's still "super excited" about space and space travel.

"It's somewhere beyond where we've had the capability of going," she said.

Also at Centaurus, physics and chemistry teacher Emily Haynes and a team of about 25 students are developing the MaRTIAn program — Mars Rover Team Imaging and Analysis — in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Kjell Lingren gives a high five to Bella Fischer, niece of astronaut Jack Fischer, after she demonstrated the seating arrangement on the spacecraft Thursday morning during an assembly at Centaurus High School. Jack Fischer, a Louisville native and 1992 Centaurus graduate, and Fyodor Yurchikhin launched about 1:15 a.m. from Kazakhstan and arrived at the International Space Station six hours later. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

The plan is to design an experiment to answer a question about the geologic history of Mars through the imaging cameras and for students to work, via teleconferencing, with the JPL science team.

"We get to learn about all the amazing things that go on with the rover that other people don't see," sophomore Katharine MacDonald.

As the Centaurus crowd waited for the hatch to open, Lindgren went over the details of space flight and shared tidbits about what it's like in space, including strapping yourself to a treadmill for exercise to keep your heart healthy.

He also shared how space gives astronauts "bird legs" as blood gets concentrated in the head and chest without gravity to pull it down.

Learning how to keep astronauts healthy is one of the main missions of the research on the ISS as NASA works toward sending astronauts to Mars, he said. Another goal is finding the best system to recycle water, turning urine into safe drinking water.

"It takes a little time to get used to the idea of drinking your own urine," he said. "It takes a lot longer to get used to the idea of drinking other people's urine."

With the presentation wrapping up, Lindgren urged the audience to continue checking in on the mission.

"I know that you are going to have a blast following along," he said. "It's going to be an amazing experience."

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